Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Rigatoni with Chorizo Meat Sauce

So I've been asked to post pictures as well, and well, I'm getting around to it, so sorry, no pics for this one either. This is something of a recipe that I've sort of become known for, of course, it's taken its course of iterations and variations, but the essence has been the same. This specifically, I can tie to my development of an appreciation for spicier foods. It has a very nice kick and tangy flavor. Apparently it's a big enough hit that my mom always asks me to make it whenever I'm home (well, now it's the salmon). Apparently a lot of people like it, I know I do.

Ingredients:
Chorizo sausage
1 can crushed tomatoes (aka tomato puree)
1 onion
garlic
chili powder (or diced chili pepper)
white cooking wine
1 lb rigatoni pasta
black pepper
salt
olive oil
spicy Italian sausage (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

1.) Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta, add pasta when water reaches a rolling boil (I add salt to the water, it makes the pasta cook faster because salt water needs to be hotter to boil)

2.) Slice the onions into slivers and mince the garlic, then on a pan, saute the garlic and onions in olive oil

3.) Cook the chorizo, normally it should come in a tube, and you just squeeze it out after cutting off one of the ends. Add the chorizo to the garlic and onions, additionally, you want to cook the Italian sausage as a meatball form here as well, if you have it.

4.) In a pot or saucepan, heat the crushed tomatoes on a medium heat.

5.) Season the tomatoes with chili powder (or add the pepper), black pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning, also add in the white wine (I think officially it's 1/2 cup, but I'm not positive)

6.) When the meat has been cooked, add the contents of that pan into the sauce, mix well.

7.) Serve over pasta when finished

And there you have it. I originally made it the first time with chorizo, but that's a little hard to find sometimes, so I used spicy Italian sausage the second time, afterwards, when I found both of them, I found that the chorizo creates the sauce and added with the wine and pepper gives it the kick, however, for people who like a little more substance in their pastas, the meatball-shaped sausage indeed makes it more substantial. I've yet to experience immense success using Anaheim chili peppers, so I think I'm picking the wrong ones, however, chili powder, for all extesnive purposes works quite well. Of course, you might want to take it easy on that stuff if you're cooking for people who don't really appreciate spicy foods as the sausage (if you have it) and the chorizo will already be adding a bit of its own kick to it. As a side note, the chorizo is very oily, so try not to get a lot of it on you, it's really hard to get out, trust me, I know.

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